Chico police warns of telephone scams

The Chico Police Department is warning residents of telephone scams going around the community.

Chico police receives frequent calls about possible phone scams, the agency said in a press release. One scam tactic is "spoofing," which is used to make a phone number appear as another number on a caller ID. The practice hides the real number used for the phone call.

In a recent case, a local business had its telephone number reportedly used in order to contact "possibly hundreds of recipients," according to a press release from the Chico Police Department. People were allegedly being told that their bank accounts were frozen and had to provide account information.

According to police, an internet search showed people as far away as Canada had received calls from this number.

In order to avoid being a victim, Chico police said to never give out personal information over the phone, to not oblige to requests to provide payments through pre-paid debit cards and to not rely on the statement's of a caller.